Mr. GOH!

I truly wonder what consumer research underlies the business plans for games like Evolve and Titanfall. it seems incredibly risky to make a game not based on a currently-successful IP whose entertainment value directly correlates with the size and dedication of its user base and then charge $60 for it.

There's a school of thought, seemingly prevalent among in-the-trenches tech folks, that watches are only arbitrary signifiers of status without any inherent utility. The Apple Watch is even more egregious in that it represents an attempt by Apple to seduce otherwise-logical people into buying into the whole luxury watch as necessary and valuable status symbol.

Theoretically, yes. Dunno what the actual upgradeability will be yet. And to get back on the ultra expensive units; I think a lot of the ultra high-end units have their prices inflated by the ridiculous cost of multiple top-of-the-line graphics cards and would likely be made-to-order rather than pre-assembled to sit around in a warehouse for a year or two. That would go far in controlling the manufacturer's costs. But I agree with Thursday; the highest-cost editions will not be selling all that many units.

Not soon enough! I've been messing around with the backer beta character creation to plan my first play through's main character. Think I'll go with rogue, but haven't settled on race or background.

I think that a good number (relatively speaking) of rich folks who would consider spending $2k plus on a TV PC gaming machine would probably appreciate the friendlier non-tower form factor for their setup. It doesn't take many people wanting the expensive options for them to be worth the manufacturer's time, I'd imagine.

I've watched the first four (or five? it's a blur), and I'm enjoying it. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's supposed hyperbolic zaniness and not reflective of how government actually works.

"Console-like gaming?" It's only console-like because it's hooked up to a TV. It's better than console gaming in every other way. The correct term is couch-gaming, which encompasses anything you can plug into your TV and play.

What's the spoiler?

Beer is hard to find in NYC? That has not been my experience.

Alaska has some possession-is-illegal dry areas, as well, IIRC. Prohibition is nonsense, of course, but better to let local crazies outlaw alcohol than have them make it a federal issue that affects everyone.

There are definitely localities in the U.S. where possession of alcohol is illegal. See, for example, Mississippi state law: http://law.justia.com/codes/mississippi/2013/title-67/chapter-3/section-67-3-13 This law is enforced, too. Mississippi has a complicated mix of wet and dry towns, counties, and judicial districts. It is likely unconstitutional for them to enforce it against folks transporting across state lines, but MS law enforcement collects fines from a good number of individuals every year. Edit: I also recall that a lot of Native American reservations outlaw the possession of alcohol.

You totally called it.

So the reviews are in: The Order:1886 is terrible. Hope nobody pre-ordered! Never pre-order a non-multiplat AAA game, unless it's from Nintendo.

Did you get any of the DLC? I suggest the Viking DLC and the Muslim DLC, at least.

Darkest Dungeon. It's in Early Access, FYI. It's a party-based RPG roguelike. I like it a lot. It's based around building a roster of adventurers of a variety of classes. It's similar to X-com in that it is split between a roster-management-research-upgrade game area and individual dungeon crawls or missions you undertake with four adventurers from your larger roster. The exploration/combat gameplay is side-scrolling RPG/adventure. You explore multi-room dungeons, discover treasure, and fight groups of enemies. The battles are turn-based, like early final fantasy games. Your party is arranged in a single-file line rather than a column, however. Each party member functions differently in each of the four slots in that line; the very powerful melee Leper class, for example, can only attack from the front two slots. The vestal class (based on the D&D cleric) is a warrior in the first two rows and a healer in the back two. The game keeps up the pressure on the player via the stress system; your adventurers constantly gain stress points as the explore the dungeon and fight enemies. After gaining enough stress points, an adventurer will get a semi-permanent debuff psychological condition or, rarely, a permanent buff psychological condition. These major conditions will affect other party members; debuff conditions will fill their stress meters and buff conditions will drain their stress meters. Your adventurers will also gain negative and positive traits as they are used. These minor psychological traits only affect the party member who has them. Your party must also carry food and eat every once in a while exploring. Larger dungeons also allow you to set up camp and use camp skills to lower stress levels and regain HP. The background and character art is great. The overarching visual design is coherent and effective in setting the mood. It seems pretty clear all the art is done by a single person or a small, cohesive team This game also features a narrator very similar in style to the one in Bastion. The narration is quite bleak, in keeping with the overall feel of the game. Even though it is in Early Access, the early game is very polished and robust; it doesn't yet feel unfinished to me. The team is adding new content all the time. There are ten classes currently and three more to be added in. I imagine that the team are working mostly on filling out higher level content. If you like RPGs or roguelikes, I highly suggest this game. It is moody, tactical, and great fun.

Sunless Sea is not turn based or dependent on any time-regenerating action points, just to be clear. Fallen London is exactly the same type of game as the Dragon Age web game.

Sunless Sea. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It's a narrative adventure roguelike. It's reminiscent of old space trader games like Escape Velocity only with more of a focus on making choices in narratives, although there appears to be a robust trading system. Essentially, you pilot a boat around an underground ocean and stop at various locations trading goods and getting involved in choose-your-own-adventure-style quests. It's the same team that did the website game for Bioware that lead into Dragon Age: Inquisition, and it shows; the quest system is very reminiscent of that web game. The ambiance is steampunk-gothic-horror-comedy and very well done. It's worth its current price for fans of these types of games, and I would suggest everyone try it out if it drops to $10. Far Cry 4. Fucking god damn eagles. I'm glad I skipped most of FC3 for this; it's much more polished and I'm having a blast exploring Kyrat and shooting royalist fools.

I picked up: It's quite interesting so far. I love the art and the concept. I'll post something more substantial later, as this is game has some unique gameplay and design elements I want to play around with a bit more. Also got: Haven't played yet. But the word is good and it boasts similarities to the ever-wonderful FTL, apparently.

does this mean old 3DS are now below $100? Still thinking about getting one solely to play Fire Emblem.

Dying Light looks like a great $20 game and I will buy it when it hits that price. I have tried to play Dead Island a few times and I just cannot get into it.

Better of the same.

I bought that Star Wars Humble Bundle thing just so I can have all the old PC Star Wars games. Kinda interested in trying Empire at War.